Yes, but who is that hanging on behind the carriage? Is
this the reward of eloquence, talents, industry? Is this the end of a
life's labor? Don't you remember how, when the dragon was infesting
the neighborhood of Babylon, the citizens used to walk dismally out of
evenings, and look at the valleys round about strewed with the bones of
the victims whom the monster had devoured? O insatiate brute, and most
disgusting, brazen, and scaly reptile! Let us be thankful, children,
that it has not gobbled us up too. Quick. Let us turn away, and pray
that we may be kept out of the reach of his horrible maw, jaw, claw!
When I first came up to London, as innocent as Monsieur Gil Blas, I
also fell in with some pretty acquaintances, found my way into several
caverns, and delivered my purse to more than one gallant gentleman of
the road. One I remember especially--one who never eased me personally
of a single maravedi--one than whom I never met a bandit more gallant,
courteous, and amiable. Rob me? Rolando feasted me; treated me to his
dinner and his wine; kept a generous table for his friends, and I
know was most liberal to many of them. How well I remember one of
his speculations! It was a great plan for smuggling tobacco.
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